Standard Average European (was: case system)

On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 14:08:04 -0400, Ph. D. <phil@...>
wrote:
>Mark J. Reed wrote:
>> Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...> wrote:
>>>  I rather assume that Campbell has fallen back into SAE thinking here.
>> SAE?  Standard American English?
>"Standard Average European," i.e. Romance and Germanic.
>This term is used quite a bit in discussions of Gode's Interlingua.
>--Ph. D.
"Standard Average European" is the name of a sprachbund or linguistic area.
In linguistics the usual meaning of that phrase, when it has a formal meaning,
is that sprachbund.

The SAE sprachbund is "_genetically_" diverse; that is, it contains members of
several linguistic families.

It runs through both the northern and southern borders of the continent of
Europe.  However, the western "border" of the sprachbund is somewhat east
of the western border of Europe, and the eastern "border" of the sprachbund is
somewhat west of the eastern border of the continent. ("Border" is in quotes
because the boundary is fuzzy, and has enclaves and exclaves.)

If I remember correctly, English and Maltese are "marginal members" of the SAE
sprachbund.  Also, if I remember correctly, Eastern Celtic languages are in the
SAE but Western Celtic languages aren't.

Does anyone have better details about what's in and what isn't in the SAE
linguistic area?

And, does anyone have any information on what the areal features of these
languages are?